{"id":36865,"date":"2012-04-28T12:45:27","date_gmt":"2012-04-28T10:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=36865"},"modified":"2012-04-30T12:32:30","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T10:32:30","slug":"e-toll-halted-by-pretoria-high-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/36865-e-toll-halted-by-pretoria-high-court","title":{"rendered":"E-toll halted by Pretoria high court"},"content":{"rendered":"

The SA National Roads<\/a> has been interdicted and restrained from levying and collecting tolls, the High Court in Pretoria ruled on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance’s (Outa)<\/a> had a prima facie right to argue for a review of the e-toll project in Gauteng, the judge said.<\/p>\n

“I am persuaded that [the] applicants have a prima facie right,” said Judge Bill Prinsloo in the High Court in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

He was handing down judgment in an urgent application by Outa to stop the e-toll project, pending the outcome of a court review.<\/p>\n

Prinsloo summarised the review grounds that were brought before the court this week.<\/p>\n

“After careful consideration of arguments and counter-arguments the applicants have managed to cross this hurdle,” said Prinsloo.<\/p>\n

High court stops E-tolls<\/h3>\n

The e-toll project in Gauteng must be put on hold with immediate effect, Judge Bill Prinsloo ruled in the High Court in Pretoria on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“I make the following order… the first respondent [SA National Roads Agency] is interdicted and restrained from levying and collecting tolls,” said Prinsloo.<\/p>\n

Everyone in the public gallery stood up and clapped hands after he delivered his judgment.<\/p>\n

Prinsloo granted an urgent interdict, brought by the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa), to stop the launch of the system, so that a full court review could be carried out to decide if it should be scrapped or not.<\/p>\n

Prinsloo said that while he realised Sanral would suffer huge financial losses, members of the public would also suffer hardship of the controversial project went ahead. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Held captive<\/h3>\n

Judge Bill Prinsloo said he was aware that the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) would suffer financially if the Gauteng e-toll project was halted.<\/p>\n

“I am alive to the fact that Sanral may suffer financial losses. This could result in its business rating being downgraded,” Prinsloo said in the High Court in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

But tens of thousands of people will also suffer financial harships if interim relief was not granted, added Prinsloo.<\/p>\n

“People are held captive by the toll roads,” said Judge Bill Prinsloo in the High Court in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

He was reading out affidavits by five South African citizens that described their hardships and how the e-toll project would affect them.<\/p>\n

Prinsloo said there had to thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people who must use the toll roads who would also be negatively affected.<\/p>\n

“In my view the nationwide objections and protesting lend to this,” Prinsloo said.<\/p>\n

Prinsloo said the main road — which would be tolled — was a “massively populated” road on a daily basis because there were no metropolitan or secondary roads available.<\/p>\n

OUTA Support would increase<\/h3>\n

The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance’s (Outa) number of supporters was expected to increase following its court application to halt the e-toll project in Gauteng, Prinsloo said.<\/p>\n

“It’s expected that after this application, its [Outa’s] numbers will increase,” said Prinsloo.<\/p>\n

If he granted the application, it would mean that a full court review would be carried out to decide if it should be scrapped or not.<\/p>\n

Outa had submitted affidavits by five South African citizens that described their hardships and how the e-toll project would affect them.<\/p>\n

Prinsloo read out these affidavits while delivering his judgment, which started at 11am on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Interdicted<\/h3>\n

“I make the following order… the first respondent [SA National Roads Agency] is interdicted and restrained from levying and collecting tolls,” said Prinsloo.<\/p>\n

Everyone in the public gallery stood up and clapped hands after he delivered his judgment.<\/p>\n

Prinsloo granted an urgent interdict, brought by the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa), to stop the launch of the system, so that a full court review could be carried out to decide if it should be scrapped or not.<\/p>\n

Prinsloo said that while he realised Sanral would suffer huge financial losses, members of the public would also suffer hardship of the controversial project went ahead.<\/p>\n

Related Articles<\/h3>\n

E-tag money deduction baffles SANRAL, collection agency<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The SA National Roads has been interdicted and restrained from levying and collecting tolls, the High Court in Pretoria ruled on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":32802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[31,3889,3890,3891,3142],"class_list":["post-36865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-active","tag-e-toll","tag-outa","tag-pretoria-high-court","tag-sanral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36866,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36865\/revisions\/36866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}